I know, totally strange time to post hot cross buns but so good you’ll crave them any time of the year! You see Easter came and went and there I was still thinking about making them! Oops. But here they are, finally! They’re so yummy I’m sharing them with you before next year. My cake testers all adored them. These yeasted bread rolls are made with white spelt flour and unrefined sugars like coconut palm sugar. They’re packed with flavour from the ground allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg plus the sultanas, dried cranberries and candied orange peel. The amazing glaze is flavoured with star anise, nutmeg, vanilla and cloves. You’ll fall in love with these ‘all-year-round’ spelt hot cross buns and your kitchen will come alive with the aroma of delicious spices. So are you waiting till next Easter or making these right now?! 🙂

Spiced spelt hot cross buns

Seriously, don’t wait! I’ve just made another batch for ‘testing’ purposes (tee hee) and because they make me happy. Plus I needed photos of the process. As you can surmise from the dragons I actually did the first batch on April 23rd, Saint George’s Day. This is Sant Jordi’s here in Barcelona and the official Catalan day of love when women give men a book and men give their beloved a rose (and a book too now!). If you’d like to see previous photos and stuff about this festival please go to my Sant Jordi Cake post. Anyway, they were my Sant Jordi buns as there’s a cross on them like Saint George’s on the flag, right? Any excuse to make them, lol.

THE RECIPE

These buns are adapted from a recipe for spelt hot cross bunsat worktop.com. But they’re made with fine white spelt flour, there’s a little less sugar and I used fresh yeast, so replaced some of the milk with water. I’ve halved the quantities for the eggwash, icing and glaze. Oooh and chopped candied orange peel replaces the currants. Yum. I also changed the method a little, adding the dried fruit not before but after the first proving or rise. I’ve heard his helps the dough initially rise more easily. Anyway I had my doubts because the dough was so wet at first, and even more slippery when the butter was added in, but with a little more kneading everything looked better. The recipe works surprisingly well! It seems breads come out lovely and fluffy when the dough is wet so please resist adding in extra flour (unless your dough is totally liquid of course).

Spiced spelt hot cross buns

Healthier and faster non-Easter options!

If you don’t do the crosses you avoid using unrefined icing sugar and save around 20 minutes’ work! Plus you won’t get people looking at you strangely and saying: ‘But it’s not Easter…’ closely followed by ‘Yum, can I have another one?’ 🙂

Bun dough

23g/0.8oz/7 and 1/3 teaspoons fresh yeast

55g/ml warm water (not hot, at about 30-32ºC)

150g/ml whole milk – you might need a little more later

45g/1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon (organic) coconut palm sugar

400g/3 cups fine white spelt flour

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 egg, beaten (58-60g, from a medium/large free-range egg)

70g/5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1 tablespoon finely-grated orange zest

1/2 teaspoon salt

40g/1/4 cup sultanas (or raisins)

40g/1/4 cup chopped candied orange

40g/1/4 cup dried unsweetened cranberries

1 beaten egg for the eggwash

After 1 hour or so

Icing for the cross (optional)

33g/1/4 cup fine white spelt flour

30g/1/4 cup unrefined icing sugar

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

1 to 2 tablespoons milk

1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Spiced glaze – do this quickly while the buns are in the oven

100g/1/2 cup light brown sugar

60g/ml/1/4 cup water

1/2 a whole nutmeg

2 cloves

1 small star anise (or 3/4)

1/4 vanilla pod, split down the middle

Add all the ingredients in a small heavy-based saucepan and bring to a boil.

Immediately turn down the heat and simmer until a syrup forms (don’t simmer too high or the glaze starts becoming opaque). Remove from heat.

When the buns are out of the oven, brush them with the hot syrup.

Wait 5 minutes and brush again with the syrup.

Eating and storing

Wait 15 minutes or so before eating. When cooled completely store in airtight tupperware where they’ll keep at room temperature for up to 2 or 3 days. Hot cross buns are nice as they are and also delicious split in half and toasted! Then slather on the butter. Yum. You can freeze them up to 2 months wrapped tight individually in plastic film. And you can take them on picnics, hiking or climbing trips! Here I am (happily) munching on one at the rock. 🙂

Hope you’ve enjoyed the spelt hot cross buns and are inspired to munch on one too! I could offer you some from my diminishing stock in the freezer… 🙂

Spiced spelt hot cross buns

Farewell for now sweet reader! Hope you’ve had a lovely weekend and wishing you a great nicely-spiced week ahead! 🙂 Lili x

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Baking on Sundays with my French mum was a lovely part of my childhood. Later I experimented with baking books or internet recipes and did the pâtisserie course at Le Cordon Bleu Paris. Still trying out new recipes and inventing cakes with influences from all around the world, adding healthy ones to the repertoire. Yes, love cakes!!! :)

😅😅Can’t wait to see your Harley Cross Buns Dookes! 👍😊 And it’s good to know you and possibly other people out there fancy eating hot cross buns any time! Yum… (might try them without the cross next time though…). Lili

Hello Lili! I would love to be part of the cake testers list 😀 They are so lucky. Those dragons in the picture are very cute. I always use brown sugar, and by coincidence, yesterday I was wondering about buying coconut palm sugar to give it a try. I’m curious about the taste of it because brown sugar tastes different from refined sugar, for example. Does it have a coconut taste or does it taste like brown sugar? With all those delicious fragrant ingedients of the recipe, I would eat the buns all year long 🙂 Have a great day!
Marianne

Hi Marianne! Thank you for your lovely visit and would love to have you around as a cake tester! Also happy you like these buns. 😊👍Yes, love my little dragons.. Coconut palm sugar doesn’t taste like coconut but more like brown sugar. It has a nice slightly caramel-like taste. Hope you enjoy it when you try it! Have a lovely day and week too! 😊Lili x

Lovely stuff you guys made from the blog!

A fabulous Raspberry charlotte by Kate! Loads of raspberries and great sponge finger casing! The assembly part was actually really easy! and ‘it tasted amazing’ she says, adding it ‘will definitely become a regular pudding in our household!’

Yummy wholemeal spelt croissants by Dookes. Very well-shaped and nicely risen too! ‘For a first attempt I have to say I’m pretty pleased. They certainly pass the taste test’ says Dookes.

Lovely brioche rolls made by Annette in New Zealand! ‘They turned out really well thanks, my boys certainly enjoyed them, all gone now!’ she reports. But be careful – she noticed that if you don’t use invert sugar or honey but just caster sugar, you’ll need to add a little extra water.

Extremely tasty-looking Lamingtons by Annette in New Zealand. Lovely and moist even without cream inside, she reports. So tempting piled up on that pretty plate. Yum!

A fantastic slice of Apple tarte tatin with Chinese 5 spices and Tamarind by Claudette, aka mum! :) It was very nice and using maple syrup is ‘genius’ she reports. The Pink Lady apples used were ‘lovely, juicy and firm’ and cooked on the ring a little over 10 mins. Plus the pastry browned quite quickly so was covered with foil towards the end.

Scrumptious orange & rum fruitcake-cake Anglais by Stéphanie in Tahiti ‘This cake is just delicious :) I brought one in the office today and it just vanished in a few minutes! Every one loved it :)’ she reports. Lovely local rum, vanilla, honey!

A delicious seed and nut loaf made by Claudette in London. She reports ‘cannot stop eating it … it is really delicious’ And she used more pumpkin than sunflower seeds and a little chestnut flour too.

A stunning Gâteau Moka by Kate in Cornwall. The piping is wonderful and she was very pleased with it. She also mentions the cake was delish! :)

A beautiful orange and rum fruitcake-cake Anglais fruitcake made by Dookes! Looks moist and delicious! Dookes’ comments: ‘seriously good!’ and ‘fantastico’!! You can find the guest post recipe at http://wp.me/p2sQo3-US And Dookes’ cake report is at https://hogriderdookes.wordpress.com/2015/03/18/lilis-biker-cake-made-and-tasted/ on his Hogrider Dookes blog.

What I made at the Cordon Bleu in Paris

Milk chocolates – muscadines and pralinés

Batons de marechaux and palets aux raisins

Gateau Basque

Wild strawberry treasure cake

Dark chocolates – truffles and almond paste chocolates

Gateau Mogador

Viennoiserie – croissants, brioches, pains au chocolat

Cake and Madeleines

Le Fraisier

Le Jamaique – passion fruit and coconut mousse cake

Entremets passionata – passionfruit and raspberry mousse cake

Croquembouche

Savoury petits fours with inverted puff pastry

Dacquoise

Opera cake

Baba au rhum – rum baba

Chestnut hedgehog cake

Tartelettes au chocolat and à l’orange

Gateau Moka

Chocolate and pistachio bûche

Plating a rapsberry and anis macaron with raspberry coulis and anis cream